BY BEN KERRIGAN
One of Britain’s biggest lottery winners, Gillian Bayford who won £148 million on the Euromillions in 2012, has not only sent her former staff packing, but has also angered some of them.
Mrs Bayford was with her former husband, Adrian when they won the huge windfall. Her marriage to Adrian lasted only a couple of years, before it fell apart. No reasons for the split was made public by the pair, who obviously preferred to keep it confidential.
Mrs Bayford took £150,000 out of her winnings to finance a cafe in 2014, only to close it down two years later, ‘citing unforeseen circumstances’. She has apparently promised her staff a pay out, but in the meantime many of her ex workers are fuming with the decision and the manner in which they were informed that their jobs were gone.
In principle, any manager or boss has discretion over their chosen medium for communicating news to their staff- whether the news be good or bad. However, good ethics call for both compassion and empathy when exercising discretion, particularly where other people’s well being may be affected by the power of our decision making. Bayford, may have been overwhelmed by whatever the cause of the closure is, though unless she literally had too many staff members under her wings, making it impractical to call them all, she erred in her judgement of using a third party without relating to them personally.
EXTRAORDINARY
Winning the lottery is an extraordinary experience for each of its winners because of the remote chance of winning involved. One’s senses is likely to be heightened following such a remarkable experience. The capacity to think broadly and rationally is expected of winners, though most winners will likely reflect their pre-existing levels of strengths and weaknesses. A man or woman of bad judgement will most likely exhibit the same failings if they won the lottery.
It would have been preferable for the Euro lottery millionaire to have explained to her staff individually or collectively the reason for the closure of the cafe to her staff since it would have consequences for their economic well being. Against this thought is her entitlement to keep the intimate details of her business private by not risking giving any of her staff access to information which she may consider too confidential.
Fears that such information may enter the public domain may provide some justification for her silence, though she could have related to her staff about the situation without necessary divulging specific details.
Her decision to gag her staff was wise since no huge lottery winner wants their staff to one day disclose to the media anything detrimental to their interest.
However, the closure of the coffee shop and the attending furore by laid off staff, still highlights a problem in the life of this winner which money hasn’t solved.It is the problem of struggling to achieve a blissful life devoid of the sort of interruptions that holds one’s judgement to question in the full glare of the media.
However, the closure of the coffee shop and the attending furore by laid off staff, still highlights a problem in the life of this winner which money hasn’t solved.It is the problem of struggling to achieve a blissful life devoid of the sort of interruptions that holds one’s judgement to question in the full glare of the media.
BUSINESS PLANS
It is not the first time Gillian has been forced to change her business plans. In 2013, she and her husband Adrian were forced to close the music shop that they pledged would remain open. There were reports that she had been the victim of begging letters and that this may have contributed to the closure. Whatever the actual reasons, her business moves will always be observed, but with over £100m, does she really care what anybody thinks? She will never run out of money for the rest of her life, unless she is a spectacular fool.
With that kind of money, she can afford a few wrong business turns and still be financially secure. Most important for Gillian Bayford should be the security of her mind.
